China assisting Saudi for nuclear ballistic missile

London: Saudi Arabia, annoyed with the policies of the Biden administration on Iran, is stepping up military cooperation with China. A British daily claimed that China is helping Saudi Arabia to develop a nuclear-capable ballistic missile. The missile is being developed near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The daily warned that the Middle East, already in a volatile state, will become more dangerous given the Saudi Arabian weapons readiness.

Moreover, Ludovica Castelli, a nuclear analyst at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, told a local daily that the situation in the Middle East had become explosive. For this, Caselli cited the horror weapons being manufactured in Ukraine. He said China was assisting Saudi Arabia in developing the horror weapon.

In 2019, it was exposed that China had signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia for missile development. Since November last year, China has launched a project to build ballistic missiles in Saudi Arabia. Caselli recalled that a leading US news channel leaked the information. Satellite photographs of a Saudi project near Al-Dawadi, near the Saudi capital Riyadh, were also leaked.

British analyst Castelli says the Saudi plant is rapidly developing ballistic missiles. She claimed, citing sources, that Ukraine assisted Saudi Arabia. Ukraine is developing a Grom-2 ballistic missile with a range of 300 km. Caselli said Ukraine had supplied technology for the same missile to Saudi Arabia. She also indicated that Saudi Arabia was working to develop long-range ballistic missiles.

‘China is helping Saudi Arabia develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads,’ she said. She also said that it would not be appropriate to specify the missile’s strike range. Earlier, in January, it was reported that Saudi Arabia was developing ballistic missiles. The United States has said that Saudi Arabia is developing ballistic missiles with a range of 3,000 kilometres in collaboration with China. The US news channel said that says Saudi was increasing its military might for weapon preparedness against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. But analysts in the Middle East say Saudi Arabia’s armaments are a signal to Iran.

Saudi has already warned that it will not be left behind if Iran becomes nuclear-armed. However, US military analysts say that Saudi Arabia, outraged by the Biden administration’s insistence on a nuclear deal with Iran, will also be equipped with an atomic bomb. Analysts had also pointed out that Saudi Arabia could get an atomic bomb from Pakistan. In this situation, Chinese assistance to Saudi Arabia in developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles is a matter of concern to the Middle East and the United States.